Mass Effect 2
Commander Shepard awakens in the year 2185 aboard a Cerberus space station, a research facility of the Lazarus Project, which is under attack by hacked security mechs. After the Commander aids Cerberus agents Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor in escaping, Shepard is taken to a headquarters of Cerberus and granted an audience with the Illusive Man, who explains that Shepard was revived and "upgraded" in return for the Commander's aid in combating a new threat in which human colonies have been attacked, their colonists deemed missing. Shepard and the team are dispatched to investigate the recently attacked colony of Freedom's Progress, located in the Terminus Systems. There, the group encounters Tali'Zorah vas Neema, one of Shepard's former squad members, and discovers that the mysterious insect-like Collectors were behind the attack and are responsible for the further abductions of other human colonies. Shepard reports this to the Illusive Man, who then places Shepard in command of the Normandy SR-2, a larger ship modeled after the original Normandy SR-1. With the guidance of the Illusive Man, Shepard begins traveling across the galaxy to recruit a new team for what is assumed to be a suicide mission. The Illusive Man initially provides Shepard with four dossiers regarding potential recruits: a salarian scientist, a mysterious vigilante called Archangel, a krogan warlord, and a powerful but psychotic biotic. The salarian, Mordin Solus, is found on Omega and is working to stop a plague engineered by the Collectors but distributed throughout Omega by the Vorcha. The vigilante Archangel is also on Omega, holding out on his own in a battle against three mercenary gangs. After reaching Archangel's hideout, Shepard learns that Archangel is actually Garrus Vakarian, one of Shepard's previous squad members. Garrus is seriously injured while battling the mercenaries, and, although he is permanently disfigured, he survives and joins the team. The krogan warlord, Okeer, is found attempting to create the perfect krogan through unethical genetic research. When the warlord is killed, he leaves his creation, Grunt, under the care of Shepard. The biotic, Jack, revealed to be a woman, is also known as "Subject Zero." Cerberus arranges for her to be purchased from the prison holding her; Shepard travels to the Purgatory prison ship. Once there, however, Shepard is betrayed by the warden as he attempts to capture Shepard for a bounty. Shepard manages to escape the trap and rescue Jack, who joins the team despite an initial distrust of Cerberus operatives. After the recruitment of the four characters, the Illusive Man reveals that a human colony called Horizon has come under Collector attack, and he dispatches the team in an attempt to save the colony. He also notes that one of Shepard's surviving crew members, either Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams depending on choices made in the first game, is stationed at the colony to oversee the construction of massive defense towers. Shepard arrives with his/her team and battles the Collectors face-to-face; the group appears to have arrived too late as half of the colonists have already been taken away. Shepard's team is able to activate the colony's defense cannons and turn them on the Collector ship, which then flees the planet under heavy fire. Shepard later reunites with the former ally, who leaves feeling betrayed by Shepard working for Cerberus. After returning to the Normandy, it is revealed that the Illusive Man allowed the Collectors to attack Horizon by leaking a tip to the Alliance that Shepard is alive and working with Cerberus. The Collectors intercepted this message and attacked the colony. The Illusive Man suspected the Collectors were looking for Shepard or people connected to Shepard. It soon becomes clear that the Collectors are targeting Shepard. Shepard is provided with dossiers on three more potential recruits: an asari Justicar, a drell assassin, and Tali. Shepard finds the Justicar, Samara, on Illium. She joins the team after Shepard investigates the Eclipse mercenary group and its involvement in a murder. The drell assassin, Thane Krios, is also found on Illium and is in the midst of completing an assassination contract on Nassana Dantius. After learning of Thane's next target, Shepard fights resistances along the way to the top floor of the tower complex where the target is located. Shepard encounters Thane, who successfully dispatches his target and joins the team, as Shepard can provide him with a purpose. Tali is found on a geth-occupied quarian colony world, Haestrom, where she is researching the system's rapidly dying sun. After she is rescued from an immense geth force, she agrees to join Shepard. The Illusive Man informs Shepard that a turian patrol engaged a Collector ship, and managed to disable it before being destroyed, and that the Normandy should take the opportunity to investigate the ship before either the turians or the Collectors respond, and find any data or technology that can help them on their mission. Upon boarding the ship, Shepard discovers many empty Collector pods, as well as the bodies of dead human colonists, apparently subjected to various experiments by the Collectors. Shepard then discovers that the Collectors had also been experimenting on their own, with EDI saying that they appeared to be researching their own genetic similarity to humans. EDI's genetic analysis of the deceased Collectors reveals that they are in fact the long extinct Protheans, having been subjected to extensive genetic modification to alter them for the Reapers' purposes. As Shepard proceeds deeper into the ship, Joker discovers that it is in fact exactly the same Collector vessel responsible for the attack on Horizon and the destruction of the original Normandy, which Shepard remarks is far too uncanny to be coincidence. When Shepard's team reaches the center of the ship, they discover that it contains millions of empty pods, more than enough to hold every human in the Terminus Systems, thus indicating that their ultimate target must be Earth. Shepard is able to link EDI with the Collector ship's systems in order to search for any useful information, but she is quickly interrupted as she discovers that the ship is not disabled; the Collectors have drawn the Normandy into a trap. EDI also reveals that the Illusive Man knew all along that the "disabled" Collector ship was a trap but still sent Shepard and the Normandy to the ship in order to gain information. Shepard and the squad fight their way out and escape from the ship on the Normandy before the Collector vessel can bring its weapons to bear. After escaping, Shepard speaks with the Illusive Man, who admits to sending the Normandy into an obvious trap in order to gain information, and says that it was necessary in order for the Collectors to believe they have the upper hand and telling Shepard about it would have tipped the Collectors off. After talking his way out of the argument, the Illusive Man reveals the data gathered by EDI has led to the discovery of the Collector's means of traversing the Omega 4 Relay, an advanced Reaper IFF system. EDI is also able to calculate the location of the Collector homeworld from their ship's navigational data, and reveals it to be within the galactic core, an extremely dangerous area, which likely accounts for the fact that no ships ever return from the other side of the Omega 4 Relay. The Illusive Man then reveals that Cerberus has located a derelict Reaper orbiting a remote planet, evidently destroyed millions of years beforehand, and sent a science team there to recover the device required to pass through the Omega 4 Relay—a Reaper IFF transponder. During the course of the investigation, Shepard discovers that the Cerberus science team members had all been killed before their arrival. Video logs left by the science team make it evident that even though the Reaper is no longer sentient or functional, the indoctrination effect that emanates from all Reapers is still present. The derelict ship automatically activates its shields, isolating Shepard's team from the Normandy and thus making their only means of escape to destroy the ship's power core, which is also powering the ship's latent mass effect fields and preventing it from plunging into the planet below. Battling their way through the Husks on board, Shepard and the team are assisted by a single geth, somehow able to talk and also apparently friendly. Shepard and the team recover the IFF and fight to the core of the ship, where the mysterious geth assists them once again before being disabled. As the Reaper's core is destroyed, its shields disappear and Shepard's team are able to escape to the Normandy before crashing into the planet, along with the disabled geth. Following the mission, Shepard may choose to either turn the geth over to Cerberus for research or activate it. If activated, the geth will be named Legion by EDI and joins the team against the Collectors. Shortly after, Shepard departs with the recruited members on a shuttle towards their next mission as the Normandy prepares the IFF for testing in their absence. However, EDI discovers a hidden signal after activating the IFF, and realizes that the IFF is broadcasting the Normandy's position. This turns out to be another trap set by the Collectors, as their ship is able to surprise the Normandy with Shepard's entire team absent. Collectors board and seize control of the ship, and Joker is forced to give control of the ship over to its on-board A.I., EDI—a potentially dangerous move. After successfully regaining control of the ship, EDI manages to pilot the Normandy away from the Collectors and rid the ship of all enemies, but the entire crew barring Joker is taken by the Collectors. Upon returning to the ship, Shepard's hand is forced—the Commander can either continue completing secondary missions and sacrifice the captured crew, or to go through the Omega-4 relay immediately to rescue the Normandy crew members. Eventually, Shepard must decide to travel through the Omega 4 Relay. Whether this is done immediately or after a delay since acquiring the Reaper IFF will determine how much of the Normandy's crew is rescued from the Collector base. When Shepard decides to proceed, the Normandy activates the Reaper IFF and engages the Omega 4 Relay. Upon exiting the far side of the relay, the Normandy appears in the midst of a vast debris field containing the wreckage of thousands of ships, presumably all destroyed attempting to traverse the relay. The Collectors have stationed automated defenses in the debris field known as Oculus, which the Normandy must fight off. After defeating the Oculus and reaching the far side of the debris field, the Normandy discovers the Collector base, a giant space station orbiting a black hole. The Collector Cruiser is dispatched from the station, and the Normandy engages and destroys it, but as it explodes the blast cripples the Normandy causing it to crash land on the outer surface of the base. Depending on the upgrades applied to the ship over the course of the game, up to 3 crew members may be killed while fighting the Oculus and Collector Cruiser. Over the course of the rest of the mission, the rest of the squad, including Shepard, may all be killed based on personal decisions and their loyalty. Shepard and the team enter the station and battle their way through the Collectors to the station's core, rescuing the surviving Normandy crew as they go. Upon reaching the heart of the station, they discover that the Collectors have been constructing a new Human-Reaper, made from the genetic material of the abducted humans and fused with the advanced technology of the Reapers. EDI hypothesizes that the Reapers attempted and failed to create a Prothean-Reaper, and instead enslaved them and turned them into the Collectors, and that they are now facilitating the Reaper equivalent of reproduction. EDI also guesses that due to its human appearance, Reapers are crafted to resemble the race from whose genetic material they are created. Shepard targets the weak supports of the contraption, which is in the very early stages of its construction, and it is seen collapsing into the lower confines of the area. Shepard then sets about with the plan to destroy the station. At this point, the Illusive Man contacts Shepard and suggests that instead, use a radiation pulse be employed to kill all of the Collectors on board, but keep the station intact to allow Cerberus to research its technology. The Illusive Man notes that any information obtained from the Collector Base would be very valuable in the coming war against the Reapers, in addition to strengthening humanity's position in the galaxy against other races. Shepard may choose to either refuse the Illusive Man's advice and destroy the station or use a radiation pulse to kill all surviving Collectors thus allowing Cerberus to take control of the station. If Shepard chooses to destroy the station, and if Miranda is with the Commander, then the Illusive Man orders Miranda to stop Shepard from destroying the base. However, Miranda, seeing the Illusive Man as a power-hungry madman, will choose to follow Shepard over the Illusive Man by resigning from Cerberus, depending on her loyalty to Shepard. After Shepard makes the decision regarding the station's fate and begins the countdown, the Human-Reaper resurfaces from the depths of the station and attacks Shepard's team. After Shepard and the team destroy the Reaper, the surviving squad members escape to the Normandy and flee the station. Seconds before the station's destruction, Harbinger abandons the Collectors to their fate, berating them for their failure and declaring that the Reapers 'will find another way'. Aboard the Normandy, Shepard converses with the Illusive Man a final time, who is either thankful or extremely angry with Shepard depending on the choice regarding the station. Shepard can either cut the Illusive Man off or promise him that they'll find another way to stop the Reapers with or without the Illusive Man's help or involvement. A final cinematic shows the Normandy undergoing repairs following the mission and concluding with the Reapers awakening from their hibernation in dark space, bearing down on the galaxy. Category:Mass Effect Category:Video Game Category:Science Fiction